A forum that examines problems undermining the development of Cameroon in particular and Africa in general, with a view to charting the way forward. The development of Africa is first and foremost an African task.

samedi 16 janvier 2010

THE GREAT FALL

(For Emilia)

Par Tikum Mbah Azonga

He disappointed meThis man to whom I gave of myselfI gave him my heartMy love, my allIn the end he walked out on meSo many years of sacrifice, self sacrificeWe looked in the same directionI, like a missionary, planted my heart on the fig treeAnd stood guard like a Roman sentryUntil the chickens came home to roost.

Today, he comes back on bended kneeTelling me he has hung his boots on the shelfHe claims he is sorry about the great fallHe asks if I’ll accept him back for a feeThose were the days we ate nothing but riceForget about my life in the Soa directionSo much water under the bridge of pedigreeBut there’s no way I can make a second entryFrankly, he must look for someone else for that boost.

Qui êtes-vous ?

I speak over twenty languages. I have native-level command of both French and English. In fact, after my higher education in France, I was recruited by France and seconded to a High School in London as a "French Mother Tongue" teacher, or what is commonly referred to as a Foreign Language Assistant. I am by training a journalist, teacher of French and Spanish, as well as a translator-interpreter. I studied in Cameroon, France and England.I have criss crossed Africa and Europe.I have worked as a journalist and teacher of French and Spanish in some United Kingdom High Schools, but especially in London. Today, I teach journalism at the University of Buea in Cameroon.
I have published books of poetry in English and French, some of which are official text books in Cameroonian schools. I am currently working on a collection of poems in Spanish and another in Ewondo, a variety of the Beti language spoken in three of Cameroon's ten regions as well as in parts of neighbouring Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.